1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to control systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to door control systems.
2. Related Art
Doors are widely used for a variety of purposes (e.g., industrial, commercial, and/or residential purposes) and vary, as a result of their widespread utility, in their construction. For example, rollup or rolling doors, coiling doors, sectional doors, and/or partitions (e.g., folding walls) are commonly used as cargo bay doors, self storage unit doors, garage doors, and/or the like. Such doors often comprise a group of interconnected leaves or slats, and this group of interconnected slats may comprise a “door curtain” or “curtain.” The curtain may be mounted to a rotating mechanism or shaft (e.g., an overhead shaft) which may be operatively coupled to an “operator” (e.g., a motor). The operator may turn the rotating mechanism or shaft so that the curtain retracts from or extends into an opening.
Typically, doors of the types described above must be initialized as part of an installation process. For example, rolling doors often require calibration of one or more mechanical limit switches (e.g., a mechanical open limit switch as well as a mechanical close limit switch). An open limit switch may establish a limit, beyond which a door may not be retracted, while a close limit switch may likewise establish a limit, beyond which a door may not be extended. An operator may be configured to rotate a shaft or rotating mechanism (or open and close a door), as described above, until a limit switch is triggered (e.g., by mechanical interaction with the operator). Thus, a mechanical limit switch may, in essence, mechanically control an operator so that it does not continue to rotate a shaft or rotating mechanism after a door has been adequately opened or closed.
With further regard to mechanical limit switches, these are commonly located high off the ground, near an operator and/or door rotating mechanism. In addition, a repeated number of attempts or adjustments may be required (e.g., by a technician or other installer) before a limit switch is calibrated adequately. For example, where a limit switch is located at or near the apex of a door, a technician who is working alone may find it necessary to travel up and down a ladder for quite some time (e.g., several minutes) making minor adjustments to each limit switch, triggering operation of the door system (e.g., via a control switch that is located elsewhere), and returning to the apex of the door system to readjust each limit switch until the operator is satisfactorily disengaged when a door is fully retracted and/or fully extended.
Many doors are also often coupled to or controlled by controllers or microcontrollers. A controller may communicate with and control an operator. For example, a controller may transmit one or more commands to an operator to cause the operator to retract a door, close a door, halt or stop a motion of a door, and the like. Although controllers have long been coupled to door systems, typically, a one-to-one relationship exists between a controller and an operator. Moreover, controllers are often manufactured to communicate with a particular brand and/or model of operator and are quite frequently packaged with hardcoded (i.e., non-modifiable, non-updateable) operating instructions.
Also, when service is required, doors typically require manual adjustment and/or a service or maintenance call to a technician or customer service agent. An agent may provide assistance over the telephone, which may, in turn, require assistance from and/or investigation by the person requesting service. Thus, in other words, typical prior art systems do not provide comprehensive automatic diagnosis or troubleshooting capabilities.
A door control system incorporating automated diagnostic routines and/or that is capable of communicating with a customer service agent or another remote system would therefore be advantageous. It would also be advantageous to incorporate, in a door control system, a controller capable of communicating with a plurality of operators. That is, it would be advantageous to construct a system in which a plurality of doors and their respective operators could be controlled by a single controller from a central control panel. It would, in addition, be advantageous to “push” or communicate software or requested functionality to a controller, e.g., as a patch or update and/or in response to a request or purchase request for new or added functionality. A door control system in which a limit (e.g., a position sensor) could be set without the dangerous necessity of repeated manual adjustment would also be very desirable.